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ADOT Tells Taxpayers Our Way or No Way

Dear Sedona Eye Editor,

This is my exchange of emails with Donald Casssano (ADOT). It appears that we, as volunteers, really have no voice in how things are run. 

Mal Otterson, Highway Clean Up Volunteer
Verde Village Property Owners Association
 
Begin forwarded message:

From: Donald Cassano

Date: February 27, 2012 11:11:01 AM GMT-07:00

To: ‘Mal Otterson’

Subject: RE: highway cleanup

Dear Mr. Otterson,

Thank you for comments regarding Adopt a Highway cleanups. At ADOT, we appreciate all of our volunteers’ efforts to keep our highways litter free.

In your email, you stated that after the litter pick up your group prefers to have the litter bags left on the highway to emphasize to the public “what a mess the highways can be has been generally accepted by the public.” And, that your group then, days later, has the litter bags picked up and taken to another location so that recyclable materials can be separated.

In the ADOT Adopt a Highway Safety Guidelines that every permittee is provided, it states that filled litter bags are to be tied and placed six feet from the edge of the roadway shoulder/pavement. In addition, volunteers are encouraged to recycle and take those bags to the appropriate municipal or commercial recycling center.

Your group has asked ADOT to leave these filled bags for five or more days on the roadway so that motorists can see the amount of litter that was picked up by the volunteers. Your group then has the bags picked up and taken off site for the contents to be sorted.

The ADOT maintenance crews will pick up these filled litter bags after the clean up, and will not be leaving them on the roadway. If your group wants to recycle the materials, they can either do that as they are picking up the litter, or your group can pick the bags up immediately and take them to be sorted and recycled off site.

The ADOT maintenance crews pick up the litter bags as a part of their regular duties. Leaving the litter bags out on the roadway for days is unsightly, and ADOT is committed to picking them up to so that the roadways are litter free.

Regards,

Don

Don Cassano, Ombudsman
Arizona Department of Transportation
206 S. 17th Ave., Room 192
Phoenix, AZ 85007 
Office 602-712-4371
Mobile 602-377-3450
Fax 602-712-3232 

—–Original Message—–

From: Mal Otterson

Sent: Saturday, February 25, 2012 1:13 PM

To: Donald Cassano

Subject: highway cleanup

My name is Malcolm Otterson. I’m the person in charge of highway cleanup for the Verde Village Property Owners’ Association. In the past two years I’ve worked with Gary Chamberlain to coordinate the highway cleanups between all of the permittees on each major highway.

With his coordination most of the cleanups have occurred on the same day and were quite successful. He has been pushing to have all permittees commit to the same number of cleanups per year also. His idea of leaving the bags on the highways to emphasize to the public what a mess the highways can be has been generally accepted by the public. In addition, having Reese’s Tire or Tire Pro pick up the bags and take them to Morning Star ranch to take out the recyclables seems to promote ADOT’s stated goal to promote recycling. For the past 6 years that I’ve been coordinating just the VVPOA cleanups no one has separated recyclables. It is just too cumbersome to carry more than one bag at a time. So all of that said, I’m wondering what was the point in having ADOT pick up the bags and take them to the dump? Were you getting damaged in some way. Was ADOT losing its reputation, such as it was? How much money was spent in this effort that was clearly unnecessary?

I look forward to your response.  (see above response from Don Cassano, Ombudsman ADOT)

 

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12 Comments

  1. Smokin Guns RETWEET says:

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  2. Josh says:

    Mal…I don’t see the issue. What ADOT is doing makes sense. While your request is not out of line, it just didn’t go the way you wanted it to go. To extrapolate that into them not listening to the public is a stretch.

  3. Gregory Stone says:

    Gregory Stone Likes! this article on Facebook.

  4. Jim says:

    It doesn’t make sense to me that the fabulous efforts put forth by those cleaning up after slobs should be diminished by keeping the trash bags out there longer than necessary. Isn’t that sort like preaching to a choir of atheists?

    Litter bugs do so without conscience, and in-your-face evidence that others will clean up after them might be a sign of acceptance of their slovenly ways.

    Just another point of view.

  5. Gary Chamberlain says:

    To Blue bag or not to Blue bag?

    To anyone who opposes leaving the bags on the highway for education and awareness my questions to you are?

    Have you ever helped with a ADOT AAH clean-up more than 6 times and know what that experience is like?

    Are you aware of the differences in Scenic Highway 89A and Highway 260 that connect Camp Verde, Cottonwood and Sedona between 2009 and 2011?

    Do you understand that the leaving of the bags in place are favored by many of the folks that brought this FVUSA effort to life in 2009 have spent hundreds of hours picking up trash and know that the desplay of the bags makes the difference? There are many who “get it”. Out of sight out of mind teaches nothing!

    Are you willing to take on this entire FVUSA project if all of the key players walk away from their efforts because a few and many who always move their lips and leave their limbs in the chair to take this on as arm-chair-general?

    Are you willing to meet with me to discuss any of these topic?

    It’s easy to arrange and it might be benefical for both parties. Willing to meet you at a public place, on a day that is acceptable to both parties.

    Randall’s in Cottonwood for breakfast works for me, how about you?

    Gary Chamberlain
    “Point Man” FVUSA

  6. Nick, Prescott visitor says:

    people you can’t find a trash can in a land that has millions and millions and millions in every city, state, and even provides FREE trash barrels in the desert at rest stops, gas stations, restaurant parking lots and in so many places it’s impossible to not see a “public opportunity trash can” every fifty feet or so? the poorest of the poor in my parents native greece had the cleanest homes, the cleanest clothes, the cleanest towns because they had pride in good health and respected themselves, others, and what little they had. mother always said you don’t foul your own nest.

    i can think of lots of things to do with the money that would stay in my pocket rather than pay for the state to pick up jerks trash.

    here’s a question for law enforcement? Why aren’t those inmates cleaning up the highways like they do in most states? Put the bums to work. Why is it okay for good citizen volunteers to sweat in the sun and pick up the trash FREE and not the people who sit in an air conditioned jails that we pay for?

    i read a comment somewhere here about a man mad about his tax bill of less than $500. come to my state and your tax bill is six times that amount before you even spend a penny on sales tax & that is for a mid to lower income property in the state so don’t be bellyaching about your good life. we should be so lucky in illinois!!! that’s why a lot of us look to retire in indiana or michigan OR ARIZONA ~~~ to sum it up low lifes are the common denominator in this country & they yank the rest of us around by a chain of responsibility. my wife and i like your news. we read it when back home.

  7. Margaret Paddock says:

    As president of the Verde Village Property Owner’s Association I am quite proud of our citizens who donate there time to do this clean up.

    I am also quite proud that we have a business like Reese’s Tire and Tire Pro that would take their time & money to pick up this trash and take it to Morning Star where the people their are willing to donate their time to see that the recyclables don’t go into the landfill.

    This is community effort at it’s best. For all the good things ADOT does do I feel they are wrong when it comes to this issue. They are adding unnecessarily to the landfill. This is one instance where government and local volunteers should come to an agreement for the good of the community.

  8. Glenn Shannon says:

    Leaving those bags along the roadway for those slobs to see won’t change them in any way, they are what they are. I have seen bags left by ADOTs rules and before they can be picked up some of them get broken open. Every time I go out shooting I take two large trash bags, one for recycle and one for garbage. I not only pick up my shells but the ones of at least 20 others that didn’t care plus the targets they shot at. It is sad to see but that is the way society is for the most part, some one else can pick up after me. I remember back in the 50s the farmers let people onto their land to hunt and fish but they left so much trash behind the farmers got sick of picking it up and posted the land no trespassing. Then all I hear was those damn selfish farmers. WE need to put teeth into people that throw their trash out but how many tickets are written in a year one or two. When you drive to Phx. you can see all kinds of bedding along the way, this is no accident. One other area that is bad is the trash trucks themselves as I have been behind them when the papers and other things are just flying out.

  9. Gary Chamberlain says:

    Dear Margaret,

    We should all try to turn the “Blue” bag issue into a even more positive issue for the state of Arizona’s ADOT Adopt-A-Highway Program (AAHP).

    By promoting the blue bags as an indicator of citizens getting involved at many levels, we are setting a new standard not only for our state but for other states to follow. For the past two years I have been in contact with other state Adopt-A-Highway managers who are more than impressed with what the Verde Valley, FVUSA effort has done to bring life into a failing ADOT AAH program. Our increased participation from 25% to 87% by the Permittee’s in three years has been recognized by many.

    In my opinion, the ADOT AAHP has failed because the managers of the program have failed to lead, enforce the requirements and inspire those in the ADOT Adopt-A-Highway Program to honor their obligation instead of accepting the standard low-bar ADOT statement to me of “Something is better than nothing”. The program has also failed because many of those who(Permittee’s) have their names on the ADOT AAHP signs have for one reason or another been allowed by ADOT to only clean their sections two times or less per year even though the ADOT AAH requirement is 3x or more for Scenic Highways per ADOT’s own web information.

    Think about it, 3x per year! From our and my own hands-on experience that means no more than 9 hours per year at 3 hours per effort. Nine hours per year should be a reasonable amount of time for those who are part of this program and anything less should be a slap in the face to the tax-payers who fund this program. The state employee’s who get paid to manage this program have lost control of their ability to manage.

    The benefits of clean highways means a better chance of increased tourism, home sales, home values, new businesses, community pride and getting to know your neighbor. Our Verde Valley a recycling effort is a one-of-a-kind example of how businesses, residents and hopefully our should-be, ADOT partners, need to come together and be “trend setters” and the “Gold” standard for other AAH programs to follow….. We need to lead from the front not the rear.

    Mowed highways, ADOT AAHP participation, recycling and a willing ADOT partnership could make for a unique Arizona that already has been recognized for its out-of-the box approach and efforts … That is until this latest poor decision by ADOT to squelch the “Blue” bag on display effort to educate and raise awareness. Highway trash is the cancer that kills the economy of communities and “The Broken Window Theory” describes what is happening across the country.

    Mowing, ADOT, how can you expect to have a functioning AAHP and not mow the highway shoulders and medians for the AAH volunteers to make it safe and very soon “Snake” safe?

    Maybe some of the ADOT employees should come help our Verde Valley groups and actually experience what we experience and that would include seeing 30 miles of highway that is far more clean than they were in 2009.

    There will be more coming on the “Blue” bag opportunities for Arizona and the nation in the near future ….. here’s a hint, “My Pet Rock”.

    Gary Chamberlain
    “Point Man” FVUSA

  10. Gary Chamberlain says:

    Glenn,

    I agree with everything you say except leaving the bags out.

    We have found that after picking up 1592 bags of crap between Cottonwood and Sedona in 36 months that leaving them out has provided a big educational opportunity.

    As for the animals getting into our bags, I would also disagree in that the little critters have already “Licked up slick” the food in the trash long before it hits the bottom of a ADOT blue bag.

    Thanks for input ….. and a whole lot of time energy and money would be saved if those peolpe who trash our country would give it a moment of thought and change their ways.

    The trash transfer trucks heading north on our I-17 (Arizona Veteran Highway) in the area just north of Highway 101 where they exit, dump trash everywhere!

    Our next FVUSA litter event is May 19, 2012, come join us when we clean 15 miles of Scenic Highway 89A and 15 miles of Highway 260. On Feb. 18, 2012 we had a WWII, 94 year-young veteran helping us as we recovered 209 bags of trash in these 30 miles.

    Keep an EYE on the EYE for the details of all of our events.

    Gary Chamberlain
    “Point Man” FVUSA

  11. City of Sedona Proclamation! says:

    Somebody is listening! The City of Sedona is giving the Road Warriors and Gary Chamberlain recognition on March 27 ! Way to go, litter lifters!

  12. Gary Chamberlain, Folksville USA says:

    Dear Anti-Blue Bag Folks,

    I would like to encourage all of those in opposition to displaying the filled with litter blue ADOT bags to come join us on May 19, 2012.

    I would be willing to bet that those who oppose the bags have never spent any notable time picking up the trash that others leave on the highway.

    For those of us who frequently visit the highway, like myself, we have seen a monstrous change in the cleanliness of our local highways. I’m a cyclist and believe me, I see the difference.

    Many folks generally say yes when I ask whether the blue bag display helps raise awareness, especially when they think about awareness and education. The conversations generated by the blue bag display raise awareness – awareness that someone cared about their community enough to collect trash and that litter is an eyesore.

    If you want proof how much people care about the bags being left out, read this link to the Camp Verde Bugle” http://www.campverdebugleonline.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=33057&SectionID=1&SubSectionID=991&S=1, for 2,000 reasons.

    The blue bags, in my opinion, are the single biggest reason that litter has been reduced.

    Want to stop the blues? Come join us at our May highway clean-up event. Put your blues on display that say “I care about my community. Why don’t you?”

    Gary Chamberlain
    “Point Man” FVUSA

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